Do not disturb! Please?

Reading time| 2 mins 39 seconds

See why the new feature in your iPhone could be a life changer for you.

                             Picture from apple.com/my

Our hustling and bustling work life can sometimes put us off balance and worse, our life. The fact is many are so into their phones replying that “urgent” messages or busy updating their social media that they would (most of the time) compromised the safety of themselves and others even while driving.

I believe this is an uptrend at an alarming state that caught Apple’s attention into innovating its Do Not Disturb, DND features, applying it for driving users as well. This app would automatically switch on when it detects your motion while driving, preventing any notifications from any apps that may distract your eyes on the road (Calls would still come in silent mode though).

The DND feature can be found in the recent release of iOS 11.0.1 (after many complaining about battery draining issues from 11.0) and it can be switch on or off depending on user preference (although I would rather recommend you to keep it on).

The numbers are scary.

                             Picture from Wikipedia

According to the statistics of road accident in Malaysia by the Malaysia Institute of Road Safety Research, MIROS, the number of road accident is still high although the index of road crashes has decreased.

According to the statistics of the road accident in Malaysia by the Malaysia Institute of Road Safety Research, MIROS, the number of the traffic accidents are still high although the index of road crashes has decreased.

Research shows that people are more prone to using their phone in heavy traffic. Many have what we called “self-optimism bias” in which we believe that we can take control of our actions better than getting help from others.

As much as I like to believe so, the case is not true, and most of the time we failed to act in that single moment of urgency. Our body simply isn't made to respond to sudden events (accidents). The number of accident cases rises to an all-time high almost every year consistently, and our government is fighting hard to bring that number down to no avail.

How it affects my life?

Well, I am glad to say that thankfully Apple has made such an application as part of its system. After tested for a few days, I have realized that I am more alert towards my surroundings while I’m driving, my wife has stopped complaining about me using the phone while driving (my bad habit of replying messages promptly).

Of course, it will drain a little more battery from your phone with its automatic switching mechanism. However, think of this, if it were to be able to set to manual mode, will you be able to switch it on every time you start driving?

How can you activate this feature if not enabled?

It’s easy, just follow the 2 steps below and you are good to go.

Step 1:

Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb.

Step 2:

Inside the Do Not Disturb bar > Activate “Do Not Disturb while driving” to automatically.

Personally, I would recommend you to set it to “automatically” because we tend to forget the minor things in life (such as tapping the DND icon).

Hopefully, this feature will help many people out there to avoid getting themselves into an accident. Of course, we still need to play our part as a responsible driver, and this feature is just here to help you out with it.

Enjoy your drive.